So I just got a trade paperback in the mail yesterday. Without giving away too much, allow me to post a select few snippets for your viewing pleasure.

Yep, it's ponies. I'm postin' ponies in ur comic thread! But this is legit. It reminds me of both Bone by Jeff Smith and the old Uncle Scrooge comics by Carl Barks.
The main series is being published in 4-issue story arcs, and the TPB Vol. 1 collects the first arc. Right away it's clear that the focus of these comics is firmly on the Adventure side of the franchise, leaving slice-of-life material for the cartoon and the one-shot microseries comics dedicated to different characters.
The first arc starts off with mysterious goings-on in town!

To make matters worse, three young ponies have been abducted and are being held hostage far to the south by...

Queen Chrysalis, the shape-shifting ruler of the changelings! She's written quite a bit darker in this comic than she was in the TV show, so much so that Hasbro actually had to ask them to tone it down a tad. She really gives the plot its necessary sense of menace and danger. Still, she does have to put up with the comic relief brigade in almost every scene she appears in outside of flashbacks, which not only serves to keep the writing on an emotionally manageable level for younger readers but also fuels some incredibly amusing facial expressions on the part of this arch-villain as she progressively loses her patience with the captives. The downside of kidnapping becomes obvious; you have to put up with kids.

So it's up to our plucky band of heroines to brave the dangerous terrain lying between them and the stronghold where their friends are being held prisoner in the queen's lair. Along the way they have a lot of adventures in which Fluttershy is best pony.

So pwetah!

It might seem like I've been a little spoilery, but I'm not. There's way more story than you could glean from these snippets and none of it touches on the climax. Also this happened. You get to find out more about that in one of the back-up stories included in the book.

In case you haven't already heard, the writing is being handled by Katie Cook (of Gronk fame, you've no doubt heard of her). She knocks it out of the park by not only keeping all the characters in-character but also working in a plethora of gags and references to other pop-culture icons like Ghostbusters and Stephen King's IT, along with more obscure classics like Cat People. The actual storycrafting side of her writing is excellent, with pacing perfectly suited to the serial format of a series with four monthly installments per arc.
Pencils and ink duties are not just handled but utterly dominated by Andy Price. In addition to the wonderfully cartoonish approach he takes with the characters, his composition and panel transitions are a treat for the reader. The original plan was for him to handle colors in his beautiful traditional media style, but it proved to be too much work if they were going to crank out monthlies. So a freelance young colorist, Heather Breckel, was brought in to give it her special touch. She went with a more show-faithful flats-based approach that still works with the large blacks and other ink textures to blend TV cartoon and comic styles together seamlessly. I'm glad they went this way instead of what you often get in comic coloring: the glossy and overly-shiny Photoshop look with random metallic sheen over everything. This property just wouldn't work with a 90s Marvel look, especially not with the refreshingly expressive cartooniness of the underlying illustration.

So the writing is both solid and compelling, the visuals are top shelf, and the overall package is worth your time if you like old-fashioned adventure comics with wit. I'm hooked, and not just because of the pwetah po-nays. My wallet is going to hate this but I'm sticking with this series, probably buying the trades as they come out and maybe collecting the one-shot side issues when I can. Those are handled by different teams of writers and artists for each book and will cover the more slice-of-life, less epic-adventure stories IDW will get to tell with this property.

It's worth mentioning that the MLP franchise has pretty much jumped to the top of IDW's stable (as it were), with the main series installments outselling all their other titles each month so far with double-digit percentages of their revenue. Yes, there are more issues of the pony comic being sold than there are of Star Trek, Transformers, or Dr. Who. It's also often outsold established titles from mainstream publishers, like DC's Wonder Woman. That's despite a rocky and inconsistent update schedule that's seen more than its share of delays as they ramp it up and frantically bring in more talent to satisfy demand. IDW's always been a tiny slice of the American comics market, but MLP has kept them firmly in the top 100 sellers month after month since the book's debut. It doesn't hurt that IDW knows full well how merch-happy the bronies are and produced a ton of desirable variant covers for every issue so far.

You can get the comic from your local shop, or digitally through iTunes and Comixology. The second story arc is well underway, but you don't need the first one to jump in.

This was brought up here before, but here is a more comprehensive look: _________________...if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there.http://about.me/omardrake

So I recently spent a bunch of money on a Star Trek omnibus that is either going to be horrifying or delightful and also set up a hold to keep up with the She Hulk comics that are now coming out and sound really interesting.

Figured I'd res the thread to let you all know. Because reasons.

Oh also I've started collecting the Hawkeye trade paperbacks. The first one is really good._________________Samsally the GrayAce

So I recently spent a bunch of money on a Star Trek omnibus that is either going to be horrifying or delightful and also set up a hold to keep up with the She Hulk comics that are now coming out and sound really interesting.

Figured I'd res the thread to let you all know. Because reasons.

Oh also I've started collecting the Hawkeye trade paperbacks. The first one is really good.

Hawkeye is the fucking cilantro of the marvel universe...fuckers put him in EVERYTHING._________________

To be honest that just makes the fact that he spends the entire first trade paperback fucking around without his costume and just generally being a giant goober even more delightful._________________Samsally the GrayAce

I used to be a HUGE fan of the old Hercules series w/ Kevin Sorbo (the Rock reminds me of him) and was an even bigger fan of Xena. Also, she plays the best brothel madam ever. Not Xena, I mean Lucy, in Eurotrip (which was an otherwise meh movie)._________________...if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there.http://about.me/omardrake